Scottish Beach Could be Permanently Closed, Over WWII Radiation Fears

A small stretch of Scottish coast known as Dalgety Bay is in danger of being condemned as a no-go area, thanks to dangerous radiation levels.

The radiation isn't anything to do with the nuclear power industry. Rather bizarrely, it comes from broken parts of WWII bomber planes leftover from the area's past military use, when some planes had their instrument panels coated with radium so they could more easily be read in the dark.

Parts of these planes, complete with their radioactive dials, remain buried along this particular area of coast, after they were dumped in post-war landfill sites. The coast is now eroding, exposing more and more potentially dangerous old plane parts, leading the Scottish Environmental Protection Agency to threaten permanent closure of the "radioactive contaminated land" if the MoD doesn't volunteer to pay to clean it up. [Wired]